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Background to Latin America

1963 58 min
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This feature documentary is a curious example of the mid-20th century ethnographic film and its depiction of non-Western peoples. We begin our tour of Central and South America in the Caribbean and move along to the vast agricultural and urban locales of Mexico, a socio-economic profile of the so-called “banana republics”, and the rich oil fields of Venezuela and its neighbours. Across the vast Andes mountain range and down towards the coffee industry in Colombia, we continually see the contrast between Spanish colonial architecture and the ruins of ancient Indigenous temples. The film shows the proud history of twenty republics …

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Background to Latin America

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This feature documentary is a curious example of the mid-20th century ethnographic film and its depiction of non-Western peoples. We begin our tour of Central and South America in the Caribbean and move along to the vast agricultural and urban locales of Mexico, a socio-economic profile of the so-called “banana republics”, and the rich oil fields of Venezuela and its neighbours. Across the vast Andes mountain range and down towards the coffee industry in Colombia, we continually see the contrast between Spanish colonial architecture and the ruins of ancient Indigenous temples. The film shows the proud history of twenty republics and their growing unrest.

  • producer
    James Beveridge
  • executive producer
    Nicholas Balla
  • script
    John Harbron
    Douglas Tunstell
  • editing
    Dennis Sawyer
    Margaret Ellis
  • sound editing
    Robert Fleming
    Marguerite Payette
  • re-recording
    Ron Alexander
    Roger Lamoureux
  • commentary
    William Weintraub

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